


The Shadows that Linger (cast them out)

by DarkAkumaHunter



Series: Reading Between the Lines [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Identity Reveal, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 06:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12811893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAkumaHunter/pseuds/DarkAkumaHunter
Summary: Marinette should have known this was coming. When they were just friends, keeping secrets felt like protection. Now, keeping her identity as Ladybug from Alya filled her with an unshakable sense of guilt. They were no closer to defeating Hawkmoth, so it was time she came clean. It was time to take off the mask.





	The Shadows that Linger (cast them out)

**Author's Note:**

> Look I managed to finish the final part too. Good job me, what a productive afternoon.
> 
> I don't really know where I was going with this I just wanted to write an identity reveal fic because alongside timetravel that's my jam.

Marinette had always had mixed feelings about the _Ladyblog_. In the beginning she’d mostly been torn between embarrassed-but-flattered and absolutely terrified. As time passed she’d reluctantly accepted that it _was_ , besides being full of all sorts of speculation (damn Alya and her search for answers), actually a decent source of news regarding akuma sightings (because Ladybug luck didn’t extend to villains always appearing in her vicinity, regardless of the many incidents there were that might suggest otherwise). But these days, alongside her begrudging respect for it, there was a lingering, ever-increasing sense of guilt that flowed through her whenever she scrolled through her girlfriend’s ( _girlfriend!_ She still couldn’t believe that sometimes) blog.

It had been hard enough lying to Alya when she was just her friend and the girl Marinette was hopelessly pining after. Back then Marinette had been adamant that protecting her friends and family from Hawkmoth was well worth any awkward conversations or speculative stares (or weekends spent grounded because she missed class, _again_ , to fight an akuma).

Now though.

Well.

It had been _so long_. Most days it felt like Ladybug and Chat Noir were still stuck at square one in their seemingly endless battle against Hawkmoth. They were stuck in a cycle of reacting – they could take down an akuma whenever one was spotted, but they hadn’t been able to move a single step forward in the actual search for Hawkmoth – and Marinette wasn’t convinced that it was going to change anytime soon.

What if they never found him?

She wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of keeping her identity secret for _years_. If that was how things were going to play out, then she wasn’t sure ‘safety’ was the real issue anymore.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Don’t tell anyone, don’t make them worry, don’t make them a target. But Alya was good at keeping secrets. _Chat Noir_ was good at keeping secrets. Every single person in Paris was already a target the moment they had a bad day, but out of all the civilians in the city Alya was already at greater risk purely from her defiant, life-threatening journalism. Could two simple words _really_ put her in any more danger?

The way things stood now, Alya was more likely to get in trouble trying fruitlessly to find Marinette during an attack. If two little words could eliminate that panic, wasn’t that a good thing?

**oOoOo**

“Chat,” Marinette said softly, lying on her bed with one arm tossed over her face, “I have a secret.”

Her partner laughed from somewhere across the room.

“Is that true?” he asked with a dramatic gasp. “Well, I don’t know if I can trust a girl who hasn’t entrusted me with her life story in _immense_ detail. However shall we mend this rift you’ve torn in our friendship?”

She sighed, because it was always a terrible idea to encourage him, but she smiled into her arm where he couldn’t see it.

“I know, I know,” she called back, “I’m a terrible person.” It didn’t come out as light-hearted as she’d meant it to, because she _was_ a terrible person. She’d been deceiving her best friend since the moment they met.

His teasing laughter trailed off at her tone, leaving a charged silence not dissimilar to the time she dumped her relationship woes on him.

“Princess?”

Marinette cringed – she hated it when Chat sounded like that because it meant she was worrying him. She rolled onto her side, facing the wall, so she wouldn’t be tempted to glance at his endlessly expressive eyes while she talked.

“It’s… it’s a big secret Chat. One that I’ve never told anyone, ever. But I need to tell _someone_.”

“Marinette, I don’t—”

“Hush kitty. Let me speak. I swear I’m not just trying to make you my secret keeper. The thing is, if I tell one person, I have to tell two people, because it would be unfathomably unfair to the second person if I only tell the first. But telling one person before the other feels too much like playing favourites, and I’m honestly not sure how I’d manage.”

“I’m not quite sure why you’re telling me this…”

With an exasperated sigh Marinette pushed herself up off the mattress, resting her gaze on the hesitant form of Chat Noir.

“Because you’re one of the people, Chat. Honestly, your self-esteem issues astound me sometimes. There’s Alya, my girlfriend, and you, my best friend.”

Chat avoided her gaze, clawed fingers fidgeting with his bell.

“I know you don’t always believe me when I say that, but it’s the truth.” Marinette shook her head, shelving the topic for another day, and focussed back on the matter at hand. “Anyway, there’s a problem with all this. Because I want to tell you both at the same time, Alya’s going to realise that we hang out. I don’t want to force that on you, which is why I’m bringing it up now. What do you think?”

After a moment Chat raised his head, staring contemplatively across at her. She let him take his time, because it was an important decision – it would be one thing for Alya to know she hung out with Chat as Ladybug, but another altogether to realise she knew him as Marinette too.

“This is important to you, isn’t it?” he asked eventually. Marinette nodded, although she knew he hadn’t really been looking for confirmation. “Ladybug might not be thrilled, but you’re important to me. And Alya can obviously keep a secret, if you’re willing to even suggest it in the first place.”

Marinette tried not to cringe when he mentioned Ladybug. Hopefully this would be one of the last times her secret identity would play havoc with her like that.

“This isn’t about me though,” she protested. “If you don’t want to see Alya I don’t want you to force yourself.”

Chat shook off her protest easily.

“You want me there,” he said firmly. “So I’ll be there.”

Marinette grumbled quietly about his complete lack of self-preservation instinct, but smiled nonetheless.

That was the (second) hardest part done. Getting Alya around would be simple.

Explaining?

_That_ would be a mission.

**oOoOo**

Marinette had initially wanted to do things during the evening, out of respect for Chat and his mysteriously busy life, but that was… dangerous. There was always a chance things might get a little heated, and her parents would be _right downstairs_. Sure, she’d made up her mind to tell her two closest friends, but her parents really didn’t need the stress of knowing that she was putting herself in danger all the time.

Admittedly there was only one extra floor between her room and the bakery, but being busy with work would keep them from paying too much attention to anything going on upstairs, and the chances of being overheard were almost entirely non-existent in comparison.

Having one detail planned out for damage control didn’t make the wait any easier to stomach.

Tikki had tried to give Marinette a pep-talk, but it was cut short by Chat Noir’s arrival. When she let him in he seemed almost as nervous as Marinette felt, but the tense line of his shoulders softened some when he settled himself on her desk chair, a cushion he’d swiped from her chaise clutched tightly in his arms.

A little bit of caution on his part was probably wise. Alya was basically a force of nature after all, powerful and unpredictable, and while Marinette was praying for a positive reaction, she knew it might take a while to get there.

The tension in the room sky-rocketed when they heard Alya arrive downstairs. There wasn’t anything they could do but listen to her approach – Chat nervous about what weighty secret Marinette was planning to unleash upon them, and Marinette worried about Alya’s reaction to Chat.

Alya’s gaze landed on Chat Noir the moment she cleared the trapdoor. She didn’t say a word until she had closed it behind her, eyes darting between Chat and Marinette.

“If this is you leaving me for Chat Noir, then I’m only half mad.”

It was a joke, but Alya had her arms crossed defensively over her chest, and there was a hint of anxiety in her stance. She truly was worried about the answer to that statement. Marinette could imagine her thought process easily: _why date me when you could be dating a superhero?_

Marinette crossed the room immediately with long, determined strides. She snaked her arms around Alya with a confidence and lack of hesitation it had taken her months to build, and crushed her tightly against her, cradling the back of her head with one hand.

“There are some things I want to talk about today, yeah, but not that Alya. I swear it. You and me against the world, right?”

Alya sighed, warm breath against Marinette’s skin, and nodded. Marinette loosened her grip and let her step out of the embrace, watching as Alya stepped into journalist mode.

“I’m still confused,” Alya admitted. “When exactly did my best girl get all buddy-buddy with one half of Paris’ favourite crime-fighting duo?”

Marinette laughed awkwardly and took a measured step back, out of immediate attack range. This was sort of like baby-steps, easing into the big stuff.

“Any answer that doesn’t involve me bumping into him in the streets and coercing him to come for an interview isn’t going to make you happy, so let’s just say quite a while?” And it had been, both as Ladybug and as Marinette. Time just kept ticking by before she even noticed it, since she was so busy with school and akuma and Alya and sometimes the bakery.

Alya stared at both of them, a slight frown tugging on the corners of her lips. Marinette bit back her knee-jerk follow up of _and no, I don’t know who he is under the mask_ , because she _knew_ Alya would get offended at the assumption. For all that the _Ladyblog_ was interested in speculating about them, Alya would never force the issue.

“So you’re just… friends, with a superhero?” Alya sounded like she was still having trouble believing those words could ever go together like that, but she didn’t sound annoyed, so that was a bonus.

“He’s my best friend.” Marinette punctuated that statement by giving Chat a pointed look. She’d said it to him plenty of times before, but this was the first time she’d been able to say it to someone else. Maybe that would help him believe her sincerity.

Alya’s eyebrows raised at that. She seemed more surprised than anything, which Marinette could totally get, because they talked about pretty much everything together (barring what she was going to confess to today) and the fact that she’d managed to stay so absolutely silent about an important part of her life when half the time she rambled with no filter was impressive to say the least.

“I asked her not to tell anyone,” Chat piped up, like he was trying to be a buffer for Alya’s potential displeasure or something. Marinette wasn’t about to let him be unnecessarily self-sacrificing.

“No you didn’t.” Marinette lightly punched him in the shoulder in reprimand. “I made that decision on my own because I respect your privacy.”

“You _would_ try and carry the world on your shoulders,” Alya agreed fondly.

Marinette couldn’t quite hold back a cringe at that. It hit a little too close to home. Chat Noir and Alya both caught it.

“Marinette?”

“Mari?”

Marinette sighed.

“You two are side-tracking me with this friendship business. Chat already knows this, but I asked both of you to come here today because I’ve been keeping secrets from you, and I think it’s time to come clean about them. And you might be angry or upset about what I tell you, and that’s fine, okay? You’re allowed to feel however you want to feel about it, both of you. But I need to tell you because I don’t feel like I can justify keeping it on lockdown anymore.”

If anything they only looked even more concerned once Marinette tapered off. She took a deep breath, hand resting over the pocket of her cardigan that Tikki was sitting in.

“Maybe you should sit down,” Marinette said, stalling.

None of the words leaving her mouth were helping the tension that was seeping into the air.  Alya gave her a dubious look, but complied with her request, sitting on the chaise and looking up at her, determined, worried, and maybe even a bit frightened.

That last part was probably entirely Marinette’s fault.

“I, uh… Showing you is probably easier than trying to tell you. So. Just. Uh… Yeah.”

Marinette closed her eyes and called upon everything that made her Ladybug, taking deep, calming breaths.

“Tikki,” she whispered. “Spots on.”

She kept her eyes screwed shut as she felt the transformation take hold. The sound of something hitting the floor forced her to open them.

Chat had dropped the cushion he’d been strangling to his chest. His eyes were wide, lips parted in surprise. Marinette was almost afraid to try and look any closer, to try and decipher his expression. Alya let out a strange squeak, capturing Marinette’s attention and giving her a momentary out from the intensity of his gaze.

“You- I- Wha- _Ladybug?!_ ”

Marinette cringed. She stepped towards Alya, hands held out in front of her, placating.

“Alya, I-”

Alya made another indecipherable sound. Marinette had never seen her so stumped before.

“My girlfriend is _Ladybug?!_ ” Alya hissed in disbelief.

“Listen, Alya, I get it if you’re mad-”

“Mad? I’m _furious_. You’ve been right next to me all this time, the superhero I admired and the girl I fell in love with, and I _didn’t even notice!_ What kind of friend does that make me?”

Marinette smiled in bewilderment at the turn this had taken.

“A very good friend who always accepted my shitty excuses whenever I disappeared during akuma attacks?”

Alya seemed incredibly torn now about whether that was actually a good thing or a bad thing. Marinette wanted to say something else, to try and convince her that it wasn’t anything against her that she’d never figured it out, but Chat spoke into the quiet.

“Ladybug?”

Marinette spun to her partner instantly. His voice was heartbreakingly sad, and god, she’d known that it might go down badly, but hearing it was shattering.

Crossing the room again Marinette dropped to her knees in front of him and peered up into Chat’s face.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, resting her hands on his knees and hoping that everything would be okay.

Chat attempted a half-hearted smile, but it just hurt to look at.

“I think I know how Alya feels,” he said. “I mean, god, I see you almost every single day, one way or the other, but I didn’t think, even for a _second_ , that the only two people to call Chat Noir friend might be the same person.”

They didn’t patrol _that_ often outside of attacks, so Marinette didn’t quite know what he meant by that, but she thought she might understand the devastation.

“Don’t you think I wanted it to be that way? There’s no point in a secret identity if it’s too easy to put two and two together. That’s why I was always so hesitant, as Ladybug, but you didn’t have any expectations of Marinette. I could just be myself and you’d probably never guess. But the guilt’s been gnawing away at me for a while now, and it kicked up a whole other notch when I started dating Alya, and well, here we are.”

“Here we are indeed.” Chat laughed, but it sounded suspiciously wet. God, she hadn’t meant to make him this upset.

“Do you at least understand now why I wanted to tell you together?”

Chat looked like he wanted to make a dismissive joke, but maybe he didn’t have the heart for it just then.

“You didn’t want to have to pick between us,” he replied softly.

“That’s right.” Marinette grasped at the admittance. “You mean just as much to me as Alya does, even if it’s not in the way I know you hoped for.”

Chat shook his head. “You don’t have to apologise for that. It’s not your fault. I always sort of knew deep down that it was a long-shot. What you told me that day, about Alya, it sort of makes it easier, knowing that I never had a chance. That you weren’t rebuffing me because I was me but because someone got there first.”

Oh god, this whole thing was tearing her up inside. Marinette blinked back tears and glanced over at Alya, almost pleadingly. Alya shrugged helplessly. There wasn’t really anything she could do – she was out of her depth watching this relationship breakdown, plus she had her own revelations to work through.

“Oh, Chat, no.” Marinette leaned up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and tugging his head down against her neck. “Anyone would be lucky to have you. But I think that maybe you’re a bit like me. I had this sort of romantic tunnel-vision practically from the moment I met Alya – even if I never worked up the courage to say anything I might never have moved on from her. And I think that’s sort of what you have with Ladybug – with me. So maybe that’s a little on me, too, for not being firmer or definitive when I brushed aside your flirtations, for letting you linger. I want you to be happy, okay?”

With Alya in the room Marinette decided not to comment on the warm splash of tears against the shoulder of her suit. Quietly, she released her transformation. Tikki came to rest solemnly on her free shoulder, and together they watched over Chat as he tried to pull himself together.

Eventually Chat let himself be tugged off the chair entirely so they could sit more comfortably on the floor, Chat practically boneless and morose in Marinette’s lap. She anticipated he might be there a while, trying to reboot, and that was fine, but she was a little worried about Alya too.

Looking over to her chaise she gestured to Alya with her free hand. Alya seemed reluctant to interrupt, but when Marinette curled her fingers more forcefully she headed towards the downtrodden superheroes.

Alya sat behind Marinette and wrapped her arms around her waist, careful not to disturb Chat. She pressed her forehead against Marinette’s back between her shoulder-blades and let out a gusty sigh.

“We can talk about you being a secret magic badass some other time,” she said, voice quiet but firm. “But more importantly, is he going to be okay?”

Marinette appreciated the thought, but she had no idea how to answer that.

Apparently Chat did.

“I’ll be fine,” he muttered thickly. “I know this isn’t the end of anything. It’s just… a lot. I don’t have a lot of close friends like you and Ladybug, and now Ladybug doesn’t count anymore because you’re the same person. It’s just… a lot.”

Marinette squeezed him tighter briefly, but there was nothing she could really say to that.

“What about me?” Alya asked suddenly.

Marinette tried to glance back at her but she hadn’t moved her head away from her cardigan.

“What about you?” Marinette asked back, lost.

“Chat, why don’t we be friends? You can tell me embarrassing stories about Ladybug, because you know Mari won’t tell me any herself.”

Chat snorted, but Marinette could feel him shake his head.

For one wild, irrational moment, Marinette was indignantly offended on Alya’s behalf. But then Chat pulled back, and she caught a glimpse of the sad, wavering smile on his face.

“Chat?”

“I think,” he said, swallowing down the last vestiges of his tears, “that since today is a day of sharing, maybe I should get in on this too.”

Marinette instantly knew what he meant.

“You don’t have to. You know that’s not why I did this.”

“I know.” His smile gained a little bit of strength. “But I was never really the one who wanted to hide it in the first place. I was just respecting your wishes.”

“And you’re okay with Alya being here?”

“I’m perfectly fine with Alya being here.”

Chat climbed out of her lap and settled himself beside her instead. Then, between one breath and the next, his transformation was gone, and she was left staring at a familiar blond haired boy.

“Adrien?” Marinette wanted to be surprised, or incredulous, or maybe to curse the fates, but honestly? Now she was just feeling what Alya and Chat – _Adrien_ – had been feeling about her. Frustration at herself, for never noticing despite him being _right there_.

Alya looked up at the sound of Adrien’s name, and made another of those strangled sounds of surprise when she saw their classmate instead of the leather-clad superhero.

“Well,” she said faintly. “Next you’ll be telling me Nino secretly has superpowers too.”

“He stood up to my father,” Adrien pointed out. “I think that’s some sort of superpower all on its own.”

They all laughed, a little confused and overwhelmed, but also relieved.

They were only two other people, but Marinette suddenly felt freer than she had in a long time, like a weight truly had been shifted. The sheer stress of trying to keep such a life-changing secret from the people closest to her had been enormous, and to suddenly have two people she didn’t have to hide with… It was liberating. She hoped Adrien felt the same way.

With everything out in the open, maybe this could be the start of something good, something _better_.

Only time would tell.


End file.
